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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha $0.00
Average Rating:4.0 / 5
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag\'kha
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/23/2015 03:25:38

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This free supplement clocks in at 6 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, so let's take a look!

We begin this pdf with a one-page introduction of the origin of the class. The baleful sorceror gets d6, may not wear armor and are proficient with daggers, short swords, sickles and scimitars. They may also use poison as a thief of the same level and may rebuke, command or destroy undead as a cleric of the same level. This sorceror learns one spell of a higher level every level, though more power can be gained via trafficking with dreaded Tsathag'Kha, putting that control in the GM's hands. The sorceror may also try to cast more potent magic than he can, requiring a save. If he fails, he takes the Constitution-drain of the magic himself and is whisked away by Tsathag'kha's servants to be looted and/or forced to sign a pact in blood.

This power obviously needs some balancing: Baleful Sorcerors of Tsathag'kha can never acquire a familiar, multi-class or be lawful/good. Upon death, his soul is forfeit and there is a 7% chance that the sorceror rises as a lich after dying. These guys do not require spellbooks. Aforementioned Constitution-drain either is equal to the spell-level or as noted in the spell's description, but these may be relegated to willing and unwilling targets, provided blood was drawn by the sorceror, and no more than 1 hour prior to the casting. Constitution recharges at 2 points per hour of uninterrupted rest, but characters below Con 3 must save to avoid systemic shock and subsequent death from the recovery.

The spell-list runs the gamut from magic detection (rolling a bunch of spells into one) to infernal conducts, blackish-purple tentacles, green, ichorous infernos and insta-kill at level 9. I wished the spells had more detailed casting/duration-infos, but ultimately can live with what's here.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a nice two-column b/w-standard and the pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length. The pdf has a damn cool b/w-artwork in addition to the full color cover.

Venger As'Nas Satanis provides a solid, nice character kit here; by virtue of the rules being designed to work with several iterations of OSR-rules, the crunchy parts are a bit less precise than what I personally enjoy, but ultimately, the class works with a minimum wok required - and that is pretty impressive. Oh, and it is FREE. FREE is hard to beat indeed and hence, I will award full 5 stars + seal of approval in spite of this minor nitpick for this pdf - well worth the download!

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Ahimsa K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/05/2015 13:10:20

Charnel God is one of my favorite weird stories of all time. This class is a very nice Smithian adaptation. Magic Users aren't that intuitive in most RPGs, (you already know spells but you have to re-memorize them daily?) so these mechanics are actually very noob-friendly. You know, if you have any noob friends of dark heart.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Daniel N. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/16/2014 03:52:38

In two rules pages you get a new variation of a wizard plus 9 new exclusive spells for this class.

Maybe too dark as a character class for more vanilla games but great write for a villain. And for darker and weirder games a great playable character to replace or side the vancian M-U.

The rules text is easily usable on any traditional fantasy OSR game rules with no or minimun converting.

Higher rate would have been if there was more write about the Lich part and the fluff text of the class was higher in word count.

A little more complete review available at my blog, but this is the same thing with less words! http://cryptofrabies.blogspot.fi/2014/02/review-baleful-sorcerer-of-tsathagkha.html



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Shane W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/20/2013 12:24:59

Venger does it again! Totally digging this class, and the history behind it. I haven't had an opportunity to run it yet, but I plan to incorporate the idea into a cult I've created in a game. These Baleful sorcerer's willl be the leaders of the cult.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Forrest A. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/13/2013 22:30:39

Beautifully simple and simply beautiful. This class harks back to the sorcerers of the old pulp novels, those who sell a piece of their soul for the black arts. I love the stripped-down-to-the-essentials spell acquisition paradigm. It's revolutionary in its ease of use. A compelling class and a great addition to any campaign!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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The Baleful Sorcerer of Tsathag'kha
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Darren P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/09/2013 12:32:09

By the Lords of the Elder Dark! A true " Classic Swords and Sorcery" warlock. A handful of free form spell groupings that truly evoke the feeling of one whom seeks forbidden knowledge and the price one pays to do so.

It elegant in its simplicity and it is FREE!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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